He said "no flame-fest" so I'll just leave it alone, even though I'm called out.
I'll just say this. People say UD is only financially motivated. They are a business so I buy that, they should be financially motivated.
So what financial motivation is there to have to make redemptions, sort out those redemptions, sort out those returning cards, have a whole computer system with front-end web site, pack those cards to mail, maintain a stock of supplies and envelopes for mailouts, and have to pay USPS and FedEx to mail cards? Because I've redeemed, out of products I've opened personally, several hundred cards. And of those cards, less than 10% were un-redeemable. And of those few, I've already received just compensation with just one call to UD and it was done.
I have the stack of chits right here next to my computer because I have a weird sense of fun when I look through them, to recall what was a redemption. They represent what must have been tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of cards that they had to mail out (not counting pre-made stuff like the old Artifacts RCs). Why would UD go through all of that trouble? How do they make money off of that, all those extra mailings? How is that good business for them to do it deliberately as a company policy?
How is it a good idea to UD to have to mail out 999 Jesse Schultz SPA Future Watches? Or to have to track non-existent Noah Welch cards? Or Nicklas Nordgren SOTTs? I guarantee you those aren't being "backdoored" nor does UD have any motivation to sucker people into thinking these guys are on the checklists and not make the cards.
It's not a UD policy, I can tell you that. Nor is it a UD problem. Topps has the same issue on the licenses they own. And now, so does Panini and they do it even less well. All of the big companies who handle players in the thousands and handle product in the hundreds of thousands/millions of cases, they all have these problems.
The only explanation is either the player never got the cards to sign (lost on the way to them) or they never returned them. And with a large majority of redemptions, and I would have personal experience as a collector, they do get sent out.
On the other hand, you can imagine the amount of work, the level of endeavor a big company can have to produce a set year after year with as many hard signed autographs as SP Authentic. Every single year, a long checklist with so many /999 Future Watch autos...the size of the organization that can do that. And what else that organization can do, in UD's case...just as bring the first game used memorabilia on card, bring the first hard-signed autos EVER to a major licensed sport card, bring the first high end paper to cards, bring rookies and young players their cards years sooner, get all sorts of licenses to do so.
Heck, we call all cards with jerseys on them "game jerseys" because UD made them first and called them that. ...even the first "stick" cards were made by UD, the baseball bat of Babe Ruth (first memorabilia cards ever). We expect high end photography because UD made the first set of cards with all high end photos and resolution. The beloved Team Canada sets that seem to come out...UD did that first in 90-91 high numbers. Reggie Jackson, then Brett Hull autos... Young Guns... Long tradition brands like the SPs, Black Diamond, . Ultimate Collection, then The Cup. The first Wayne Gretzky auto and the first auto per pack set (Be A Player) where everyone had a chance to open a real auto. The first desirable chase set based on a cool theme in Hockey Heroes...heck we're still looking for header cards in this year's product! The first McDonalds set, biggest selling sets in history of hockey collecting, I heard.
I know you guys like to prop up In The Game. But...
It's time to be real. Everything current cards are now that we love the most are based on things UD brought out first. They could do this because they thought big, proved durable throughout the years despite taking a lot of risks. They've had to continue to survive by running their business as a business. And all of the other big card companies try to either emulate them or one-up them, even Topps, the granddaddy of them all. And they all do redemptions. In a business you can't really hold on to one little stack of cards and put them in a later product. You have to design whole products at a time and have them approved by various boards, execs and even bean counters. I worked for small companies, then I was put in charge of a division of a large one. Later I went to work for a mid-sized aggressive company but now, after we were bought out (friendly) I work for one of the biggest corps in the world. When big businesses make products, several teams and groups have to approve the business plan for it, including the numbers for the project.
It's a part of business. But then, there are things only bigger businesses can do. And sometimes those things change the game. In UD's case, that "sometimes" is MANY times.
- R
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